Restrictions on organic/processed food exports to go: Suresh Prabhu

18-Dec-2018

Restrictions on organic/processed food exports to go: Suresh Prabhu

With the Central Cabinet approving the Agricultural Export Policy, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said all the restrictions on export of organic and processed food would be lifted, paving way for the growth of the sector.

The Cabinet has also approved the proposal to establish a central monitoring framework with Commerce Ministry as the Nodal Department, having representation from other Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as concerned State Governments to oversee the policy implementation.

“As a part of entire policy, the creation of cold chain infrastructure would be aggressively worked on with the complete involvement of State Governments.

Each of the State Governments has decided to appoint a nodal officer who will work to create the infrastructure," the Minister said addressing a conference on strengthening the micro, medium and small enterprise (MSME) ecosystem in food processing organised by Assocham, here.

"At the same time, to make exports possible, the Government will remove all restrictions on organic foods as well as processed foods," he said.

For other agriculture products, depending on the situation, we will remove the restrictions," the Minister told the gathering of businessmen and Government officials.